ABBOUDIYEH, Lebanese-Syrian border - Dozens of Lebanese trucks loaded with goods bound for other Arab countries have been gathering at the border between Lebanon and Syria, impatiently waiting for permission from the Syrian authorities to move on.

The strict measures at the northern Lebanese-Syrian border have been imposed on Lebanese truckers since Syria was forced to withdraw its troops from Lebanon on April 26 under Lebanese and international pressure.

"This is really humiliating for us truck drivers ... we sit here between 24 to 48 hours to be allowed to move on with our journey," said Abu Ali, a truck driver who makes a living transporting goods between Lebanon and Iraq.

"The Syrian customs are now making our lives a nightmare. They check every item we have -- they even check our personal food meals and sometimes some of them are so mean they away throw our meals and tell us you deserve this treatment, you Lebanese," Abu Ali told Deutsche Presse-Agentur DPA at the border.

"They also interrogate us and ask us if we are with the anti- Syrian opposition," he added.

"They make us wait for no reason. All our papers are legitimate. They just make you wait for two or three days. If we have goods to deliver on time they are delayed and if we have goods that will be damaged they (the Syrians) simply do not care," Abu Ali said.

The drive from Beirut to Syria through northern Lebanon used to take two hours, but things have drastically changed since Syria's withdrawal from the smaller neighbour it dominated politically and militarily for three decades.

Long queues of container trucks, most of them transporting goods destined for Iraq, have been held up at the Syrian border since Tuesday. Such delays are putting a strain on Lebanon whose only outlet to Arab markets are through Syria.

Lebanon's newly-designated Prime Minister Fouad Seniora, who has been having difficulties in forming his new government due to political bickerings between the various Lebanese factions, called his Syrian counterpart on Thursday to discuss the border issue.

Talks in early June between former premier Nagib Mikati and the Syrian authorities regarding the border restrictions brought no result.

Political sources believe that the Syrian border measures are intended "to show the Lebanese government that Syria controls the only passage for Lebanon to the Arab countries and they can tighten the grip on Lebanon's economy at any time."

However, a Syrian officer at the border told DPA that "these are not provocative measures ... against the Lebanese they are security measures we adopted to prevent any Arab militants from crossing our border."

Last week, Syria announced that two of its security personnel were killed in a firefight with militants on the Lebanese border.

An "Arab extremist" also died and an unspecified number of militants were captured, the official Syrian news agency reported, adding that 34 suspects were detained in a subsequent raid.

Damascus is under intense pressure from the United States to control its border with Iraq and stop militants slipping over into its violence-torn neighbour.

However, Lebanese truckers are convinced that the measures are a "punishment to the Lebanese people and the government because they pushed Syria to leave Lebanon."

"They tell us if you do not like the measures go tell (Saad) Hariri to feed you," Abu Ali said.

Saad Hariri, son of slain prime minister Rafik Hariri, is today heading the majority of the anti-Syrian groups in Lebanon's 128- member parliament.

Hariri's father was assassinated on February 14 in a car bomb blast. The anti-Syrian opposition in Lebanon accused the Lebanese pro-Syrian regime and their allies in Damascus of killing him.

Hariri's murder sparked political turmoil in the country which led to international pressure to ask Syria to leave Lebanon and end its 29-year military presence in its neighbour.

Informed political sources believe that the border crisis is part of the strained ties between Lebanon and Syria since Hariri's murder.

The sources revealed to DPA that some pending economic agreements with Damascus were shelved after the withdrawal such as an agreement under which Syria was expected to supply Lebanon with cheap natural gas.

"There is certainly a crisis between Syria and Lebanon. Until it is solved our truckers will still witness very strict measures at the border and we will not be able to get their cheap gas. This is part of the Syrian punishment," economic expert Louis Hobeika Said. (DPA)